Love Cute Animals? Animal Art Gifts for Sale - Cards, Postcards, Posters, Mousepads, Magnets, Stickers, and More!

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Rene Cloke (1905 - 1995)

Rene Cloke first came to my attention when I was researching the artists affiliated with Great Britain’s Medici Society, an art publishing company started in London in 1908. Although widely known for her depictions of fairies, sprites, pixies, and elves, she also painted many illustrations of dressed or anthropomorphic animals for greeting cards, postcards, annuals, and books, some of which she herself authored.

Rene Cloke was born Irene Mabel Neighbour Cloke in Plymouth, Devon on October 8, 1904 (or, variously, October 4, 1905), although she spent most of her life in London. The daughter of a bank manager, she was a shy child who passed many hours sketching. Her first employment after graduating was illustrating an educational series, The Radiant Way, for the Edinburgh publishers, W & R Chambers, a firm that played a leading role in pioneering inexpensive but quality literature for middle and working class readers during the 19th and 20th centuries. While illustrating cards for the above-mentioned Medici Society, she was also associated with another Scottish printing company, James Valentine & Sons (variously, The Valentine Company), whose primary focus was lithographic postcards. In addition to greeting cards and postcards, Cloke was an extremely prolific book illustrator. She illustrated many books by Enid Blyton - one of the most successful British children's storytellers of the twentieth century -  including Naughty Amelia Jane, The Three Golliwogs, the Mr. Meddle and Mr. Pink-Whistle series, and the Everyday Book series. Among the better known tales she illustrated were Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, Grimms' Fairy Tales, Hans Andersen Fairy Tales, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Brer Rabbit Stories by Joel Chandler Harris, several Bible stories, and many more. She herself authored and illustrated numerous books including Woodland Stories, Before We Go to Bed, Rene Cloke's Bedtime Book of Fairytales and Rhymes, ABC and Counting Book, My First Picture Book series, and retellings of well-known tales such as Cinderella , Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, and others. In addition, she continued to produce illustrations for the many annual publications, including Uncle Oojah's Big Annual, Blackie's Children's Annual, Tiny Tots Annual, Jack and Jill Annual, Playhour Annual, and Harold Hare Book.
During World War II, Cloke worked for the BritishWar Office as a tracer, producing maps from photographs for use by the Royal Air Force. After the war, she resumed her career in writing children's books and card and book illustration. In the late 50’s, she moved to London, residing at 31 Bernard Gardens, Wimbledon SW19. She continued to work until just four months before her death on October 1, 1995, at age 91.

If you would like to see my own cute animal illustrations and various products - mousepads, mugs, postage stamps, stickers, buttons, and more - featuring them, please click here.

Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop is Now Open!

If you like cute animal illustrations, sometimes known as "dressed animals", "anthropomorphic animals", or "animal character" illustrations, please hop on over to my new online store, Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop. You'll find a variety of products - mousepads, postage stamps, baby t-shirts, cards and stationery, stickers, buttons, and more - featuring my own storybook-style illustrations of charming and whimsical mice, birds, frogs, bugs, bunny rabbits, shrews, toads, swans, flowers with faces, and more. I've just started adding products, so please be patient while the store grows. Please enjoy, and thanks for looking!

And Now a Word From Our Sponsor...Adele from Whimbletails™

This my latest painting, called "Shrewy's Farm Stand." Shrewy is a becoming a popular character around the Whimbletails™ world! When he's not busy selling produce to his loyal customers like Mrs. Crow, he also operates the Pumpkin Cafe, dishing out such tasty treats as Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Pie, and faithfully subscribing to the credo, "waste not, want not," even the Pumpkin Seeds. See below! If you'd like to see the complete collection of my Whimbletails™ paintings, please go to my web site by clicking here.

                           

Lang Campbell - "Comic" style animal character art

There's two camps, or distinct styles, in animal character illustration. This first is naturalistic, like Beatrix Potter's. You may be aware that her first artistic efforts were in scientific illustration - her renderings of mushrooms, bugs, flowers, etc. are superb. When she began to illustrate her books, she never compromised her facility for naturalism. A frog may have been wearing a waistcoat, but he always remained an anatomically correct frog!

The second style is comic - usually line drawings, with flat colors; and exagerrated features with limited regard for anatomical accuracy. One of my favorite "comic" cute animal illustrators is Lang (Lansing) Campbell. I can't even look at his "Dinky Ducklings" without laughing! Are those guys too goofy or what? Here's two examples:

 

Lansing “Lang” Campbell was a 20th c. American illustrator and cartoonist best known for illustrating the Howard Garis cartoon series "Uncle Wiggily’s Adventures" (started 1910), later to become the basis for several dozen books featuring the beloved character. During the 1930's, Campbell also created a few strips and books of his own, including "Piggy Pigtail", "Paddy the Pup", "Dippy Doodlebug", "Bizzy Izzy Humbug", "The Dinky Ducklings", "Duck and Applesauce", "Dicky Bird’s Diary," "Merry Murphy" and more. After an active career in New York City, he retired to Boothbay Harbor, ME about 1950, where he spent the rest of his life. Exact dates of birth and death unkown.

My own animal character art? A cross between the two. A good deal of naturalism, especially in the botanical areas of the painting, but a bit of artistic license when it comes to rendering the animals - especially insects! I try not to stray too far...but they persist in coming out cute! See my painting "Best Buddies" below (take a close look at Fat Mr. Bee!)

To visit my online store featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring all my  whimsical animal art, please go to Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop.

Clara Atwood Fitts

Since I'm always scouting around for examples of cute animal illustrations, I was really excited to come across an old 1927 book at my local thrift store called "Pine Tree Playmates." A beginner reader, it was written by children's author Mary Francis Blaisdell and illustrated by an artist I'd never heard of, Clara Atwood Fitts.  What fun to find someone new! Since the illustrations were so beautifully done - by someone who was obviously well-practiced in animal character illustration - I tried to find out more about her. There's not much. She was born in Worcester, MA in 1874, attended the Boston Museum School, was a member of the  prestigious Copley Society, and lived and worked primarily in NH. A quick search of Amazon Books shows  considerable artistic versatility, with children's, religious, and classics to her credit. Her date of death is unknown. Above are a few examples of her work. They are extremely charming, beautifully drawn, well composed, and cute, cute, cute! Don't you agree?

Would you like to see my own whimsical animal art? Please visit my online store, Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop, featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring my own cute animal illustrations.